Spouses Cesar San Jose and Margarita Batongbakal vs. CA, spouses Marcos and Gloria de Guzman

Petitioner-spouses filed a complaint to annul the extra-judicial foreclosure sale conducted by the Provincial Sheriff of Bulacan of the property covered by TCT no. T-159703 located in Duhat, Bocaue, Bulacan.

The land was mortgaged to private respondent spouses Marcos and Gloria de Guzman on April 14, 1972 as security for the payment of a loan of PhP 12,000.  For allegedly failing to comply with the conditions of the mortgage, the private respondent extra-judicially foreclosed the said land and was sold at the sheriff's sale held on Nov. 25, 1975 with the respondent as purchasers thereof.  Consequently, TCT no. T-159703 was cancelled and TCT No. T-30762(M) was issued in the name of respondent.

Petitioner spouses contend that the extra-judicial foreclosure sale was invalid or void for the following reasons:
1.  The petitioner spouses were not notified of the extra-judicial foreclosure;
2. The sheriff's certificate of posting of notice was not presented;
3. There was no proof of that the newspaper in which the notice of extra-judicial foreclosure sale was made as one of the general circulation; and
4.  The property mentioned in the Notice of Sheriff's sale and in the minutes of auction sale was covered by TCT No. T-169705 not by TCT No.T-159703, the title to the mortgage property subject of the foreclosure sale.

The trial court and CA upheld the validity of the foreclosure saying that although the property to be sold pursuant to the foreclosure of mortgage was indeed covered by the TCT No. T-159703 and NOT by TCT No. T-169705, the technical description, however, in the notice was the actual and correct technical description of the property.

ISSUE: WON the extra-judicial foreclosure sale complied with the requirements of ACT No. 3135 which governs the extra-judicial foreclosure of real estate mortgage?

HELD:
NO
In the Tambunting case, this Court stated that the failure to advertise a mortgage sale in compliance with statutory requirements constitute a jurisdictional defect invalidating the sale and that a substantial error or omission in a notice of sale will render the notice insufficient and transfer certificate of title of the property to be sold.  This is substantial and fatal error which resulted in invalidating the entire notice.  That the correct technical description appeared on the Notice of Sheriff's sale is to inform all interested parties of the date, time and place of the foreclosure sale of the real property subject thereof.  Logically, this is not only requires that the correct date, time and place of the foreclosure sale appear in the notice but also that any and all interested parties be able to determine that what is about to be sold at the foreclosure sale is the real property in which they have interest.  The extra-judicial Foreclosure Sale of the property of the petitioner spouses are null and void.